


Birds In A Gilded Cage

by NervousAliceCurious



Category: Escape the Night (Web Series), Escape the Night Fanon
Genre: Beat The Walls Down With Your Fists, Escape Attempts, Gen, Glass Boxes, Moving Exhibit, New Clothes, New Faces, New Roles, Parasol Whacking Power, Possible Rescuer?, Protection?, Spark At The Target, These Boots Were Made For Kicking!, Trust Issues, Vine Control
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-22
Updated: 2020-07-03
Packaged: 2020-07-11 11:40:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19927480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NervousAliceCurious/pseuds/NervousAliceCurious
Summary: A girl, a Plant Man, a Demon, a Hypnotist, and a Most-Wanted. The revolutionary exhibition of the ages. None of them want to be there. How long until they will be able to wrench free!?





	1. New World Order

-A sharp intake of breath woke me right up!

What-what had happened!?

I’d just been re-making my bed…

And now I was here!?

Skirts swished around my feet, a bright lavender.

Silk gloves tapered out to my wrists…

I could see the fringes of a purple bonnet, and my hair felt like it had been teased into tight curls.

The parasol stuck in my hands was so heavy I nearly dropped it!

“Hello Alice…”

“Hello?”

I saw Mystic across from me, clothed in all white.

She was looking at me anxiously…

“Fear not…you are safe here”.

“Safe…?”

“Yes”.

I could hardly believe who I was talking to:

The Escape the Night Collector herself, red robes and all.

“From what?”

“The Cursed God”.

I felt my mind flip on its head!

She wanted to _help!?_

“Huh…wait-“

“It is alright if you do not understand it all now…

You will have plenty of time to adjust”.

“Oh…kay?”

Opening her hand, she let fly three orbs of sparkling green.

They seeped into the three cases to my right, and I almost tripped on flat ground-

Envy, in a loose white shirt and black pants.

“Wh-What!!?”

He took one glance at the box surrounding him, and immediately began trying to batter it down, countless vines leaping to his defense in the blink of an eye.

Candy Pop, wearing his past blue outfit with purple stripes.

“-Well!

What’s this?”

His violet eyes glowed with a little confusion, and a lot of thinly-veiled anger.

And Penelope in a gauzy, green gown.

“Where-where in the many dimensions have I ended up!?”

She splayed her hands flat against the glass in distress!

“What is the meaning of this!!”

“For your own protection, you must stay”.

“No way!”

Thuds from the case directly next to me.

Envy’s vines were straining to crush the sides, his fists and arms starting to bleed with the force of his attacks.

“I’m not your porcelain doll!!”

The Collector sighed.

“You’re not”.

With a wave of her hand, his plants shriveled to shreds.

“And stop this.

You will only injure yourself”.

She tapped on his case with a finger, and he was suddenly propelled backwards.

“You-!!”

“If you cannot behave, you will be removed from the exhibit”.

“Oh is that what we are now?”

Candy Pop’s smirk was downright dangerous.

“Just…living wax figures?"

“Not so.

This is your new sanctuary”.

“From the Cursed One, I would dare say-“

“No doubt you would”.

She hefted her spear.

“I must go to collect more souls.

Don’t try anything in the mean time”.

Aimed directly at Envy.

“Please”.

“Of course, my lady”, Candy Pop said with an exaggerated bow.

Penelope scoffed.

Eyes narrowing at the cunning jester, she began to walk away.

“Alice, I don’t like this”, the Plant Man whispered.

“I don’t really like it either”.

I thumped the parasol into my palm.

“I bet this would do it…”

“We’ll wait until she’s out of earshot”.

“Mm-hm!”

-

While those two planned their getaway, the Demon and the Hypnotist were left to their own devices.

“She could’ve at least given me an RSVP”.

“RSVP?”

“Oh yeah.

You know…just ‘in case’ I felt like showing up”.

Penelope’s eyebrow twitched.

“…I see”.

“Still showing some glass, eh?”

It twitched harder.

“Clever…how very clever”.

“Why thank you!”

The gleam in his eyes was positively insufferable.

“Always nice to be ad-dressed…”

Her fingers trembled with the effort to not strangle him.

Even though she was trapped.

“You and your puns-“

“Are what?”

“…

…

…

…Fffiiinnneee….”

-

(Could anyone hear her screaming!?)


	2. Reject This Utopia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The time has come to escape!!

“Okay!”

I lifted my parasol into the air, adrenaline flooding through me.

“She’s gone-

I’m gonna try this now”.

Envy nodded and brought forth more vines with barely any effort.

“Same here”.

Candy Pop knocked on the side of his case.

“Allow me to join you two”.

His hands sparked with ominous purple light.

Penelope hiked up her skirts, boots at the ready for kicking.

“I second that”.

As one, we:

Brought down the weapon with force!

Wrapped around the glass, and squeezed!!

Blasted the confines with dark magic!!!

Beat at the sides with steel-tipped shoes!!!!

They didn’t break.

For any of us!

“Come on!” Envy cried out.

“Stubborn little b*, isn’t it?” Candy Pop muttered.

“Won’t—budge—!!”

Penelope kept up the attack.

“Ow…”

Me?

I felt waves of pain radiate up my arms.

Across from us, Mystic was having trouble too.

We could hear her whaling on that thing with all her might!

With no success.

…

When the Collector returned, no one had made any progress.

-

Time passed…

Or did it?

The sun never rose here.

It was just always night 24/7.

Ines showed up next, screaming to be let out.

Then Dooper, who alternated between being amused and convinced that this was all a dream.

Celeste, Stella, Erica…

Tristen and Bailey.

A new face every other day.

…I was getting awfully sick of waking up inside of this cage!

Nothing I did ever worked.

Not my vines, not my own strength, _nothing!!_

I was always careful to avoid notice by our captor, not that it made a difference in my situation any.

But I did **not** want to be separated from everyone else.

Though that might make the nightmares stop…

…

Who-

A girl in a cream-colored suit.

She’d dashed across the clearing to Mystic’s side-

I couldn’t hear a word she was saying.

They talked for a little bit, and then she was off.

Blitzing across the field like a comet, and vanishing to the right.

…Was she trying to get us help?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Liza better hurry it up...


	3. Dual Freedom Revolt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Forever goes by, and then a miracle-  
> The Meta-Meet Up begins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cw: Isolation, phys. violence. Tiny language worries? Tiny usage of somebody's Heavenly name. Blowing things up. Dying talk. Maybe death, electrocution.
> 
> I guess thinking about Season 4 made me do it. It has been a while. I am rambling, we're about to get the official tag.
> 
> And Happy Pride Month, everyone!!

......Nothing much changed.

Either the only one of us to get free, _ever,_ had run into some kind of snag, or-

Or we’d been left behind.

I didn’t know them well enough to say for sure which one it was.

I would’ve _hoped-_

...

_I guess it doesn’t matter now, does it?_

*

Then one night.

What looked like electricity crackled through-

The glass hemming me in suddenly shattered!?

“-!!”

I hit the ground on all fours, and scrabbled up-

-A piercing ripped through the air, almost drowning out the last of the glass-breaking.

Panicked voices and shouts took over, too fast and too loud for me to tell who was who-

My ears were in _pain._

_What’s going on!?_

_What just happened-_

“Envy?”

“Alice!”

I pulled her into a hug, relieved-

“Are you okay!?”

“I’m good, are _you_ okay?”

“I’ll be fine-“

She let out a breath.

“-Where’s Mystic?”

We turned to look-

“Yesss-“

A purple glow from next to us.

“It’s about time!”

The resident Demon had been freed.

“Let’s blow this popsicle stand”.

I didn’t like the look in his eyes-

_“Literally”._

“Not so fast!” Penelope yelled, grappling onto his arm-

“I won’t let you kill us all-“

“Yeah, maybe lay off the violet sparks?”

-I grimaced as one nearly singed my eyebrow.

“I can make a portal-gets everyone home without the risk of death?”

“You can do that?”

She kept one eye on C.P., and one eye on me.

“I think I can”.

“-Guys!!”

_Huh-_

Mystic.

“Liza-Liza must have-!”

“Liza?”

Candy Pop had not an ounce of recognition upon his face.

“She promised she’d get us out-“

“-Are you okay?” Alice interrupted.

“I saw you banging on the case-you looked really upset”.

“No, I’m not”.

Her hands clenched into fists.

“She said she’d keep me safe from the Cursed God if I stayed as the Headliner for the exhibit.

But being isolated like that-was pure **Hell** -“

“Oh so _that’s_ it...”

The Demon chuckled.

“Figures”.

“What does!?”

“-Do we really have time for this!?” I cut in-

“Someone screamed!!”

“-Yeah, I know”.

She nodded toward an opening we’d all been angled away from.

“There’s another one out there. That’s where Liza came from-“

“Do you think they’re free too!??”

Alice twisted the fabric part of her parasol in worry.

“I don’t know. Probably”.

“Then we should go check-“

“ _-Just_ as soon as we convince _him_ not to blow the Museum up”.

C.P. scowled.

“Throw me under the bus much?”

“You’re the one trying to cause mindless destruction-!” Penelope countered-

“-Seriously!”

I had to say it _louder-_

“I have a way we can leave, that doesn’t involve that!”

“Then do it-“ the Jester demanded-

“The other exhibit first?” Alice asked-

“Right”.

Mystic shot him a glare.

“We need to see if DeStorm and Justine are okay”.

“Yes, let’s!”

C.P. winced as he got it square inside the ear drum-

“Alright, fine-!”

-He let her yank his arm down.

“Fine”.

I exhaled.

_Like pulling teeth._

*

-We weren’t the only ones who’d realized there was a giant hole in the wall.

I tried not to step on anyone _too_ badly in the crowd-

**-OW** my head!

. . .

_....Did I ever mention how much I hate low doorways?_

“Whoah-“ Dooper said-

“We really _aren’t_ the only ones here”, Celeste breathed. . .

“-Oh. Hi”.

Ines seemed surprised, yet not.

-To their credit, the other Guests had been about to leave.

I only recognized a couple off the bat-

The rest, I had to take a moment.

Ro and Colleen.

Neither of whom were wearing the flashy 80’s color anymore.

And Joey.

“B*, there’s more!?”

A younger man, in a bright-yellow coat-

“I _swear_ I had nothing to do with them being here!”

“A likely story”, his former friend sniffed.

“Was there a fourth party and you didn’t tell us!?” the Cowgirl shrilled-

“No!! I don’t even know who some of them are-“

“The Collector brought us here”, Mystic spoke up.

“Mystic!?” Ro’s hands went to her mouth.

“Yeah, it’s me....what do you all remember before now?”

“Um...”

Alex scratched his Aviator’s helmet.

“Well....I died in the Dark Dimension. . .but also a Hotel. . . . .?”

“Me too”.

Gabbie fussed with her skirts-

“I lost my heart-and _then_ I lost my vacation!!”

_-You lost your **what!?**_

“I too, have split memories”, DeStorm added with zero traces of emotion whatsoever-

“-Wild stuff”, Tim remarked.

“I don’t know, I just want to go home...or wherever”, Justine flared.

“Uh. . .”

Before I could tell them what I’d already told Alice. C.P.-

“Might want to run first!!”

-We looked as one to where Erica was pointing.

In two directions.

-It was as if a signal had been fired....

Glowing, golden eyes heralded the arrival of guards in Egyptian armor.

“F*-“ C.P. murmured-

“Omigod-“ Tana yelped-

-They descended like rabid vultures.

“No, hey-!”

Dooper punched a guy in the nose.

Similarly, Alex was going to town-

“-They’re so cute!”

_Not the best priority to have right now, Yellow-Jacket Guy!!_

“Bailey!!”

Alice’s shout-

I spun to see one of their numbers having snatched the poor bear-

“No way!”

I slipped a vine around them, and _yanked._

They crashed into my arms-

“Thank you-“

“No problem!”

-There was a THUD as Alice smacked someone with the flat of her new weapon.

-I had a bad feeling on the zapping sounds, but I didn’t want to dwell.

Mystic cracked another someone’s ribs with her elbow-

Stella kicked a guard in the shin-

“RUN!!”

Penelope and Joey.

_-They should’ve shouted ‘scatter’._

Because _that’s_ what ended up happening.

-

Months later, _still_ unprepared for combat.

_Oh well._

At least _my_ guy wasn’t going to rise for a while....

I smirked at the faint smoke coming off of his prone body.

_Teach you to mess with **me.**_

“Candy Pop-!?”

Alice was looking over my-

I swung my fist, and the guy was downed.

I heard Ro’s scream-

_Now what?_

Ah.

I grinned as Joey was the first to be Taken.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, some people are in trouble.


	4. Fight, Escape, Negotiate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time to deal with all of these guards.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cw: Blood, language. Fantasy/physical violence and death. Mention of murder.

_Bye._

Golden fires everywhere-

Colleen screamed as she too, was snatched.

“No!” Alex punched another guard-

The back of my head tingled.

“You all ready for more?”

It was rhetorical.

I sparked, and I zapped, and soon, I had a ring of unconsciously dead enemies surrounding me.

I blew the residual smoke off the tip of my finger.

“D*”, Tana whistled.

I heard Erica cry out.

I heard a litany of swears from Dooper-

An empty circle merged with my own:

Penelope was doing nicely at mowing them into oblivion.

_I wonder how many years of karate that is._

“-Candy Pop?”

“I know, it’s been forever”.

-She looked like she wanted to elbow me.

“How did you-?”

“I’m a Demon”.

I flexed my hand open, and purple fire emerged-

“Of course”.

Hard to tell what she was thinking from the lack of reaction in her voice…

“Who isn’t taken yet?”

“Give me a second-“

Granted a temporary respite by my efforts, I squinted to see:

“Tana’s fine.

Alice has lost her umbrella, but she’s otherwise holding on.

DeStorm has knocked at least five individuals flat-

And that Bretman kid is being a little rabbit”.

“Anyone else?”

“Gabbie’s running rounds around them”.

“In those heels. Hm”.

“I know, she’s a Legend”.

-I dodged a flying body.

“-Did you know Dooper is good at judo?”

“No, no I did not”.

“You learn something new every day-“

She dissolved in a flash of green.

“-What!?”

I looked for the source.

Stella, Tristen, Erica-

All gone…

_Who’s doing that-_

I.

Should have known-

Envy’s green eyes were glowing brighter than usual.

His palm a pale-eden.

_Someone’s been portal-making._

And because I knew him, I knew exactly where they’d disappeared to:

_Home sweet home. Wish I was there-_

The amount of people fighting for their freedom amongst this mess had significantly thinned out.

I zapped a few more guards, and then started to make my way-

“Candy Pop!”

“Hey, you”.

We ended up back-to-back.

“Kicking people out, are you?”

“-I couldn’t reach the YouTubers”.

“But I notice most of the Authors are missing”.

“Besides you and Alice, and Mystic, I lost track of Celeste”.

“Eh. No worries”, I hand-waved, “We can have Michael deal with it”.

I grinned.

_A mutual friend-when he's not pushing his luck._

“How long, you think, until the Collector returns to see what we’ve done?”

“. . .I don’t know”.

“So not long then. Good to hear”.

I grinned-

“Let’s give her something to be upset about, shall we?”

“If that’s what you want…”

“Why thank you. I _do_ want it”.

He tore up additional vines from the earth and unleashed them.

I crackled purple lightning-

It was the end of the line.

*

We re-grouped:

“Where is everyone!?”

Mystic’s frantic gaze darted around the clearing-

“I sent them home”.

_Ha, knew it-_

“You did what-“

“They don’t even know what’s going on!”

He folded his arms.

“It’s better this way”.

-I noticed she had bloody fists.

_Good on you-_

“Does this mean-?”

Ro was practically beaming with hope.

“You can-“

“Maybe?”

He shrugged.

“I could try-“

“-What’ll we do about the Collector, though?”

Alice tore at the hem of her dress.

_I’m surprised she didn’t do that sooner._

“-Anyone have any ideas?”

The Plant Man left it hanging in midair-

“Didn’t they use Excalibur?”

Mystic had knelt to rapidly wipe her hands clean-

“Is there an exhibit for that?”

The Cowgirl’s voice rasped-

“Unless we’re considered ‘Mod Art’”, Tim joked.

“Well you’d better make a decision soon”, DeStorm cut in, “‘Cause I ain’t dying with you all”.

“Me neither”, Gabbie seconded.

“-So let’s find it already”.

Bretman looked and sounded done with everything and honestly. . .what a mood.

“No directory?” I asked-

“She wouldn’t just leave one lying around”, Mystic snapped.

“…Maybe we could find a map inside?”

Alice nodded to the creeping corridors not that far away from here-

“…We wouldn’t be sitting ducks in there”, Justine carefully conceded.

“And it won’t smell as dead”, Tim muttered…

_Oopsy. Was that MY fault-_

“-What have you done to MY GUARDS!!!”

“-That’s our cue to split-“ Bretman inhaled-

“Everybody run!!” Alice said-

Envy panicked and sent Rosanna home.

“Dude is this really the time-“

Tim vanished too.

“Come on-“

I yanked the guy along by the arm before he could unintentionally hit the Collector.

“Save it for the inevitable Lounge”.

“But-“

“Do you want to be captured?”

“No-“  
“Thought not”.

I shoved him ahead of me.

“Go”.

*

Those doors didn’t know what hit them.

“Lock them-lock them-!!”

I could hear Alice-

Justine and DeStorm pushed them shut.

“More like ‘block them’-“

Envy and Gabbie worked together to push a couch under the handles.

“Oh-nice work you two”.

They gave me strange looks.

“What?”

“Did we lose anyone”.

Mystic’s glasses were askew from the rush-

“Hmm. . .”

I did a silent head-count.

“Where’s Bretman?”

“-Oh no!”

Alice’s eyes widened.

“And where’s Tana-“

“F*”.

Gabbie rearranged her dress.

“I knew it was too quiet in here”.

_Oof, savage._

I grinned.

“Everyone else accounted for~”

“Did they get caught!?”

Alice twisted her parasol.

“Either that, or we left them outside”.

-Justine immediately peered out the windows.

“I don’t know-I don’t see them-“

“Neither do I”, DeStorm intoned-

“Whoops”.

-I didn’t know WHY I was getting those looks….

“…Is there a problem?”

“Um….”

Envy pointed to behind me.

“Hm-“

Oh.

_I have a knife to my throat._

“Hello, who is it-“

“Don’t you dare move”.

“Don’t hurt him-!”

Of course Alice would be the one to say that-

“Who is it-?” I repeated-

“The Sorceress”.

DeStorm stared her down.

“We meet again”.

“….Yes, yes we do”.

“Great…”

Gabbie groaned.

“Why do we have to deal with you again-“

“I didn’t think we’d be meeting one another, either”.

Blade-further-into-jugular-

“You guys know each other?” Justine gulped-

“Y-up”.

The Hollywood Star sighed.

“She tried to murder us all in the Victorian Era”.

“And I would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for-“

“Those meddling kids?”

-I don’t know why she didn’t like my suggestion…

I coughed slightly.

“Have you been here ever since Season Two?” Mystic gasped-

“What?”

“Long story”, Gabbie shot down, “But you know, I’m kinda torn about you letting that guy go-“

“Hmm, how nice, I’ll remember this-“ I promised.

“He’s our ally!” Envy spoke up.

_“Is_ he”.

I had an idea to spark-

“Please give him back!” Alice pleaded.

“Yeah…yeah, we’re all friends here”.

Justine came closer-

I winced as she dug in the blade.

She’d nicked the skin-

“Maybe-maybe we can help you too…along with our friends!”

“Oh?”

“Yes-“

She’d reached out her hand.

“Is there anything…anything you’d, I don’t know. . .”

She made a face, shrugged.

“Anything you’d want?”

The ‘Sorceress’ laughed.

“You’re brave, girl…”

“-I know, this is just as new for me as it is for you”.

Her fingers locked on my wrist.

“What do you want?”

“My magic”, the woman snarled.

“Okay. Done, i-it’s a deal”.

She pulled on me lightly-

“Can we have him back now?”

-

I was afraid she'd slit his throat at the last minute.

"Don't mess with me", she hissed in his ear-

"No plans to do it-"

"I'm watching you".

"Mmhm-"

....She didn't press the knife in so hard.

"Why do _you_ still have magic?"

"What, you mean-"

He raised his hands, sparking with purple.

"These?"

"-Look, we don't have time for this!" Mystic said, "We need to save everyone who was captured and we need to find Excalibur".

"-And return me to my power".

The Sorceress pointed threateningly to Justine-

"Right", sooo...where is it?"

"The Collector hid it somewhere!"

"O...kay".

The latter nodded-

"Well...I think I'm an Explorer now, so...I am on it".

"-Can I _move_ now?" C.P. crabbed.

She let him mostly go, and my grip on the parasol relaxed.

_....Aw. I crinkled it._

"Can we really trust her if she has a knife?"

Envy was eyeing it warily-

"I don't like it either", Gabbie declared, "But we're probably gonna need her..."

_Oh dear._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things do change rapidly around here. . .

**Author's Note:**

> Candy Pop belongs to Jesterca/Grimace Jester.
> 
> Accidentally deleted the first draft of this and had to start all overrrr!!


End file.
